Fitbit Public Preview adds food & water logging, more as app redesign comes to free users
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YouTube Gaming signs exclusive streaming deals w/ Twitch stars TimTheTatMan and DrLupo
Twitch is the go-to place for streamers, but YouTube isn’t taking its hat out of the ring. Just this week, YouTube Gaming has poached TimTheTatMan and DrLupo, two huge Twitch stars, in exclusive deals.
Expand Expanding CloseYouTube touts 40M active gaming channels with 100B hours of watch time in 2020
Amid COVID-19, people unsurprisingly turned to watching a lot of video for entertainment. YouTube Gaming in particular touts its “biggest year, ever” in 2020.
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Summer Game Fest partners with YouTube Gaming for exclusive streams, including PS5 coverage
With E3 this year canceled due to COVID-19, a number of other events have popped-up in its place. The Summer Game Fest produced by Geoff Keighley will be partnering with YouTube Gaming for some exclusive content.
PewDiePie signs exclusive streaming deal w/ YouTube Gaming
Live streaming has become a massive trend in the gaming world with platforms such as Twitch and Mixer gaining popularity. To launch new platforms or keep players on a specific option, some of these services make exclusive deals with popular streamers and, in line with that, YouTube Gaming has today announced an exclusive deal with PewDiePie.
Activision Blizzard will host games on Google Cloud, makes YouTube exclusive streaming partner
Google today announced a multi-year strategic relationship with a big game developer that spans various parts of the company. Google Cloud will become Activision Blizzard’s preferred provider for game hosting as YouTube becomes the exclusive live eSports streaming partner.
Google pulls the plug on ‘YouTube Gaming’ app on May 30th
Back in September of 2018, Google announced plans to merge YouTube Gaming with the standard YouTube platform and immediately made its content available in both locations. Now, YouTube is officially pulling the plug on that standalone app in just a few days.
YouTube Gaming is no longer a standalone app, previous site shutting down in 2019
One of YouTube’s first standalone services was YouTube Gaming to capitalize on streaming games to a live audience. With the explosive rise of an Amazon-owned Twitch, Google is now integrating gaming into the main YouTube site and mobile apps.
YouTube announces partnership to exclusively live stream Esports Championship Series
Following expansion into television last month, YouTube is now aiming to capture the eSports market after partnering with FACEIT. YouTube will exclusively stream the Esports Championship Series (ECS) competitive gaming league, as well as work with players to build audiences on the video platform.
YouTube Red is now available in Australia and New Zealand
Many of the products and services that Google releases are usually geographically limited to the United States. After an initial rollout in the US last October, YouTube Red is now available in Australia and New Zealand.
YouTube Gaming expands to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, many more ‘coming soon’
YouTube Gaming, the platform the company first unveiled back in June to bring live gameplay broadcasting to YouTube, is today expanding to new territory including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
EC says Google’s $185M tax deal with UK government may be illegal, likely to be investigated
The European Commission says that the £130M ($185M) tax deal struck between Google and the UK government may amount to “illegal state aid” by offering the company better terms than those available to smaller businesses.
Google first came under fire for its tax arrangements in the UK in early 2013, when it was accused of funneling profits from UK Adword sales through Ireland, resulting in the company paying just £6M ($8.5M) tax on a turnover of £395M ($565M). In the new deal, it agreed to change its accounting practices to pay more tax in the UK, and to pay a lump sum in back tax …
YouTube purchases 553,000-square-foot office park for $215 million in San Bruno
Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that YouTube has acquired a massive new office park near its current San Bruno headquarters. The Bayhill Office Center comes in at 553,328-square-feet and consists of five buildings. YouTube paid $215 million for it, which comes out to around $388 per square foot. Youtube acquired the space from Hudson Pacific Properties, which purchased it from Blackstone Equity Office just last year.
Take a virtual walk in Hobbit country with Google’s spectacular New Zealand Street View trek
The backpack-based Google Trekker tours have taken us to some pretty spectacular places in the past, and the latest addition won’t disappoint. The Street View imagery covers seven of New Zealand’s world-famous ‘Great Walks,’ including some of the settings for the Hobbit movie trilogy …
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Google Play Games app adds gameplay recording & sharing features
After adding gameplay recording features to mobile apps alongside its new YouTube Gaming platform launch earlier this month, Google is today updating its Google Play Games app for Android with similar features.
The update will allow users of the Play Games app to quickly hop into gameplay recording with the ability to share their own commentary simultaneously using their device’s front facing camera and microphone.
It’s simple. In the Play Games app, select any game you want to play, then tap the record button. You can capture your gameplay in 720p or 480p, and choose to add video of yourself and commentary via your device’s front facing camera and microphone. When you’re done recording, you can quickly edit and upload your video to YouTube.
Google notes that the feature should come in handy for some of the content creators contributing to the roughly 144 billion minutes of gaming videos and live streams viewed on YouTube each month.
The updated Google Play Games app for Android is rolling out to users in the US and UK starting this week with users in other countries getting access in the near future.
YouTube Gaming update brings Mobile Capture on Android, paid sponsorships, more
YouTube has today announced that its Gaming platform is getting a couple of really big updates, just as the service reaches more than 144 billion minutes of gaming videos watched per month. As of today, uers of the newly-updated Android app will be able to stream the games they’re playing on their phones, and certain creators can monetize their viewership with sponsorships…
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Google ‘exploring’ bringing Fiber to San Diego, Irvine, and Louisville
Google today has announced that it will begin “exploring” the expansion of Google Fiber to three new cities. The company announced in a blog post that it will begin working with city officials in Louisville, KY, Irvine, CA, and San Diego, CA to plan the launch of Fiber. The announcement of Fiber coming to San Diego makes it the largest city for the service to date. Previously, San Antonio was the largest city with plans for Fiber.
YouTube Gaming app goes live in Google Play, download it now
Good news, fans of live-streamed gaming: YouTube Gaming is now available for Android from Google Play. YouTube announced that it would be releasing a dedicated app for watching gaming-related live streams and videos hosted on the platform several months back, shortly after Amazon acquired competitor Twitch for nearly $1 billion. Downloading the app from the Play Store is limited to US and UK residents initially.
YouTube Gaming, Google’s Twitch competitor, purportedly launching tomorrow
YouTube Gaming, Google’s attempt at taking on Twitch, is allegedly set to launch tomorrow, August 26, according to TechCrunch’s sources. The site will go live at gaming.youtube.com tomorrow in the US and the UK and will act as a central hub where viewers can find and watch people live streaming their own video gameplay.
Google announced that it would be getting in to gaming live-streams a couple of months back and has been working behind the scenes to get its service ready for a public rollout. Once live it will act as a direct competitor to Twitch, an Amazon service which lets gamers stream their gameplay and offer it up to viewers to watch. It’s a huge market to get in to, and one which YouTube clearly has the infrastructure to manage. Just searching through YouTube for game walkthroughs or live-streams should be enough to convince anyone that the game-streaming market is huge.
The questions is: Will YouTube compete with Amazon’s Twitch effectively? Twitch has more than 1.5 million broadcasters and amasses over 100 million visitors every month and cost Amazon nearly $1 billion in September last year. Interestingly, Google itself was an interested party and was bidding in competition with Amazon to buy Twitch last year — at times Google was even believed to have closed the deal. YouTube Gaming will be available to download on Android when it launches.
Google releases first Creator Preview version of YouTube Gaming for Android
Earlier this year Google unveiled its new YouTube Gaming service to rival Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch after several months of speculation. Today, Google has released the version of the YouTube Gaming app for Android, albeit in an early “Creator Preview” form. The changelog of the app reveals that the app is capable of many of the features previously announced.
Google Store now selling Nest Cam in the UK, Belgium, France, Ireland, & Netherlands
Google has expanded availability of its new Nest Cam product to more countries after officially unveiling the device last month. Starting today, customers in Belgium, France, Ireland, Netherlands, & United Kingdom will be able to pick up the device through the online Google Store. Google previously launched the device for customers in Canada and United States through its online store.
The product, alongside other new Nest products shown off in June, are the fruits of Google’s acquisitions of smart thermostat maker Nest and connected security camera company Dropcam last year. Nest Cam offers a lot of what made Dropcam cameras popular, offering 1080p HD video, 130-degree field of view, 8 infrared LEDs, night vision video support, companion mobile apps, and cloud recording and video history through a subscription service.
Nest Cam is available for $199 USD from the Google Store.
Facebook Messenger’s free video calling now available worldwide
After adding support for a new cross-platform video chat service through its Facebook Messenger mobile apps, Facebook has now announced that the feature is rolling out to all worldwide.
The feature first launched back in April for users on iOS and Android in Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the UK, the US and Uruguay. Today, Facebook said the feature is now rolled out globally “with the exception of a few countries” that it’s still working on:
Quick update on video calling in Messenger: we’re happy to share we’ve now rolled out the capability globally, with the exception of a few countries we’re still working on improving quality for.
You can check out the new Facebook Messenger video calling feature through the latest versions of the iOS and Android apps.
Sprint expands free international data roaming to more countries, now 22 total
Sprint today announced that it’s expanding its free data roaming offer to a number of new countries, bringing its new total up to 22 locations around the globe.
New countries added today include: Colombia, Denmark, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Paraguay and Sweden.
Those add to the full list of 22 supported countries where Sprint customers can take advantage of the International Value Roaming feature, which allows customers to use data for free when traveling to supported countries abroad.
The full list includes: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Sweden, South Korea, Spain and United Kingdom.
Gmail now supports Irish language Gaeilge
Google announced on Thursday that Gmail now supports the Irish language Gaeilge. The historic language is not spoken as the first language of many people in Ireland, but a larger number of people speak Gaeilge as a second language. Gaeilge is also the national and first language of the Republic of Ireland.
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Google Shopping Express becomes true Amazon Prime competitor w/ $95/year memberships, new cities & more merchants
Google announced today that its rebranding its Google Shopping Express service while expanding the same day delivery service to new markets and merchants. While announcing the new shorter “Google Express” name, Google announced that the service is now available in Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C. After first rolling out the service a year ago, it’s now accessible to more than 7 million people.
Google also noted some of the big merchants it’s added support for in recent months, including alcohol delivery in the Bay Area, making for a total of 16 new shopping options through Express:
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